Meet Steve & Meghan

Steve's Story

I had held a number of jobs in my career, each requiring a varying level of travel ranging from once every few months to full 100%, and the travel was always the best part of each job. Even though I tried to keep that going for as long as I could, I eventually fell into the cookie cutter career role. I spent the next few years in a job that rarely had me leaving my cube and although I liked my coworkers, it just wasn’t enough for me and left me wanting way more out of life.

At this time, we lived in Denver and sure, we had the mountains and everything they offered and the city itself was such a fun place but we knew there was so much more to experience and see in the world. Meghan and I had always dreamed of traveling consistently but it just didn’t seem to be achievable on our current path so we started to get creative.

For years I had this idea stuck deep in my head that we needed a specific amount in the bank to be able to start this type of life and it just seemed that no matter what we tried, we never came closer to that number. In fact, we found that the harder we worked, the further away that life became and ultimately, we realized that the deck was stacked against people like us, those who saw how much more the world had to offer and felt something wrong on a base level with the normal life we were expected to follow.

I had always been surrounded with the traditional view that if you wanted to travel consistently and explore new countries, you had to work for the weekend for 40 years while trying to save up as much as you could so one day you could finally get what you really wanted. Seeing what happened during the recession taught us that you can’t live your life by just looking forward to that next vacation when you can forget about your 9 to 5 for a few days until getting “back to reality” all while waiting for that magic land of retirement. I knew that path could no longer be counted on to lead me where I wanted to go.

With all this in mind, in the spring of 2017 we decided to just go for it and take the leap. So now here we are, traveling to amazing places, visiting family, and living our dreams.

Meghan's Story

Picture me, late 2015. I was working 70+ hours a week at a soul sucking commissioned sales job, while also renovating a house, planning a wedding, and managing a 3-unit rental property in my “spare time.” Despite the antianxiety medication I was on, I was plagued by panic attacks and riddled with stomach ulcers. I had insomnia, heart palpitations, and a very neglected fiancé/husband who was basically doing everything he could just to keep me alive. I was holding on by my fingertips. It took everything I had just to get through the day ahead of me.

Suffice it to say, that life was unsustainable. And it was no surprise that when I reached my bottom, the burnout was deep. Real deep. I was a hot mess. When I finally quit my nightmare of a job, all of the emotions, experiences, indignities that I had ignored and buried came crashing down on me. And I crumpled like a piece of paper. Quite literally. I collapsed on my couch and remained there for several months.

It took some time to put myself back together, and during that process I had to question everything I had once held as undeniable truths regarding success, happiness, and a life well lived. Tearing down the world you made for yourself and starting again from scratch can be a gut wrenching and emotional process. But if you follow along my journey, you will see that it is absolutely worth it. Because here is the dirty secret the world doesn’t want you to know: life is a game, where the rules are made up and the points don’t matter.

Now flash forward to 2017, just two years later, and Steve and I have quit our jobs, sold our cars and taken off on a journey around the world, with our amazing dog, Ash. If you’d like to follow us, we are going to lay it all out: the good, the bad, the practical, and the embarrassing. So, whether you are trying to check some things off your bucket list, live vicariously through our photos, or completely redesign your entire life, we will try to have something to offer everybody. Cheers!